Top Ten Young Guns of the 2018-19 Upper Deck Series 1 Release

In our last article, we celebrated the official launch of the cardboard hockey season with the coming of Upper Decks 2018-19 Series 1.

In that post we discussed the various products that you can purchase, in pursuit of completing this years sets, what they contained and which one best suits you as an individual collector.

Now, we delve deeper into these products to get to the heart of the matter and discuss what everyone is interested in, the highly coveted Young Guns, the most collected series within the hobby.

Who Makes the Young Guns Series 1 Cut and Why?

Amazingly, Upper Deck has done it again, pushing out an incredibly collectible product, within an incredibly short period of time.

Unbeknownst to many within the hobby, Upper Deck has only a mere five weeks to compile their first list of Young Guns to be included in the 2018-19 Series 1 list.

This is because of an official ruling by the NHLPA, that states that no player may appear on a licensed trading card until they have a played in an official NHL game.

What this means is that Upper Deck only has one weekend to acquire photos for the Young Guns series, resulting in some rookie players who didn’t play a game, not making the Series 1 cut.

Fortunately, Series 2, which releases next year, has these Young Guns covered.

Young Guns 2018-19 Series 1 Checklist

For those who have made the cut, and appeared on the ice in the very short window that Upper Deck has to produce cards, fans of the hobby can rejoice, for they have some truly great prospects.

As we covered last week, the Upper Deck Series 1 set contains 200 base cards, followed by 50 Young Guns cards. The latter of these are as follows;

Card #

Player name

Team City

201

Rasmus Dahlin

Buffalo

202

Roope Hintz

Dallas

203

Mikhail Vorobyov

Philadelphia

204

Morgan Klimchuk

Calgary

205

Adam Gaudette

Vancouver

206

Maxim Mamin

Florida

207

Dillon Dube

Calgary

208

Michael Dal Colle

New York

209

Shane Gersich

Washington

210

Mackenzie Blackwood

New Jersey

211

Louie Belpedio

Minnesota

212

Neal Pionk

New York

213

Jordan Greenway

Minnesota

214

Filip Hronek

Detroit

215

Brett Howden

New York

216

Maxime Comtois

Anaheim

217

Eeli Tolvanen

Nashville

218

Oskar Lindblom

Philadelphia

219

Anthony Cirelli

Tampa Bay

220

Kiefer Sherwood

Anaheim

221

Evan Bouchard

Edmonton

222

Austin Wagner

Los Angeles

223

Maxime Lajoie

Ottawa

224

Tomas Hyka

Vegas

225

Ryan Donato

Boston

226

Michael Rasmussen

Detroit

227

Libor Sulak

Detroit

228

Travis Dermott

Toronto

229

Marcus Pettersson

Anaheim

230

Henri Jokiharju

Chicago

231

Dennis Cholowski

Detroit

232

Dominik Kahun

Chicago

233

Nick Seeler

Minnesota

234

Christoffer Ehn

Detroit

235

Trevor Murphy

Arizona

236

Warren Foegele

Carolina

237

Zach Whitecloud

Vegas

238

Antti Suomela

San Jose

239

Troy Terry

Anaheim

240

Sheldon Dries

Colorado

241

Jordan Kyrou

St. Louis

242

Samuel Montembeault

Florida

243

Par Lindholm

Toronto

244

Kristian Vesalainen

Winnipeg

245

Luke Johnson

Chicago

246

Miro Heiskanen

Dallas

247

Igor Ozhiganov

Toronto

248

Elias Pettersson

Vancouver

249

Jesperi Kotkaniemi

Montreal

250

Rasmus Dahlin/Elias Pettersson

Buffalo/Vancouver

Likely, even if you aren’t hoping to collect all of these cards, there are more than a few break out names appearing on this years list. Which as we will soon showcase, are making some serious impacts on the hobby.

But which of these rookies are currently the most sought after?

The Top Ten Most Expensive Young Guns of 2018-19

Everyone has their favorite player and everyone has their preference in who they want to find within any pack they tear open, however, the secondary market ultimately determines who are the “top hits” within any selective year of the hockey season.

As is typical, there are a few Young Guns who stand out above the rest, and are thus going for some staggering prices.

Here are ten of the most valuable Young Guns, as determined by the world’s largest secondary singles market, eBay;

Elias Pettersson #248

Rasmus Dahlin #201

Jesperi Kotkaniemi #249

Eeli Tolvanen #217

Ryan Donato #225

Henri Jokiharju #230

Warren Foegele #236

Samuel Montembeault #242

Miro Heiskanen #246

Evan Bouchard #221

Elias Pettersson

First and foremost, we have Elias Pettersson, of the Vancouver Canucks, who fans have a lot of hope for.

This card is the pinnacle of the standard set, and is the card that everyone is hoping to pull as they crack open their Upper Deck 2018-19 Series 1 products, as it is currently going for close to $200 per card!

Rasmus Dahlin & Jesperi Kotkaniemi

Following behind Elias, with a close tie for second place are Rasmus Dahlin and Jesperi Kotkaniemi, the former of which is playing for the Buffalo Sabres and the latter for the Montreal Canadiens.

Both of these cards add an incredible amount of value to this Upper Deck 2018-19 Series 1 set as well, commanding anywhere from $60-$100 on the secondary singles market, depending on the quantity currently available for sale.

The remainder of the cards within our top ten list are all great cards as well, and go for anywhere from $10-$25 a piece each.

In Conclusion

This years Upper Deck 2018-19 Series 1 set is once again a massive success and may even become more of one, as has happened many years in the past, as breakout rookies gain traction and popularity.

As always, this list of top ten cards can fluctuate and change over time, evolving and morphing as some players perform better than others.

Time will determine the true top ten list, but it remains highly likely that Elias Pettersson, Rasmus Dahlin and Jesperi Kotkaniemi will command a spot somewhere within that list.

But how about you? Which rookie is your favorite this year and who do you believe will ultimately come out on top, as this years breakout rookie?